The Traditional 3-Act Structure: Part 2

Much of what a writer does when crafting a story is based on instinct, weaving in the rise and fall of action. The same can be said about a developmental editor. Every story is different, so there is no strict formula that can be applied.

Tools like the traditional 3-act structure are only diagnostic tools, designed to help us understand why something might not be working.

In the first post of this 3-Act Structure series, we introduced the importance of this structure as a whole, and began breaking it down. We looked at the first act (The Setup) and the first point of No-Return. Today, let's get into the nitty-gritty of Act 2.

The Traditional 3-Act Structure: Part 1

Most writers have a natural instinct when it comes to story structure and plot. We do so much reading, or we see so many movies, that understanding pacing is just part of our makeup. Even new writers, still learning their craft, have this instinct.

We know that if we have action scene after action scene, eventually we need to have a calm scene that gives us the chance to breathe. We know that there needs to be those moments of reflection, looking at what has happened in the past, but if we spend too much time dwelling on the past, that explosion will be needed to get things going again. And there will also be those moments when a character decides to risk all and just go for it—damned the consequences.

As writers, we follow a story structure with the instinct of knowing where the rise and fall in the action needs to be. However, when something is off in the pacing of a story, that's when all the discussions come out about one of countless number of models for story structure and the analytical tools associated with it.

As a developmental editor, it is my job to look at story structure and pacing from the macro and micro levels. If pacing is off, for whatever reason, I delve into the mechanics of a manuscript and tear that structure apart to find out why things just don't work. Much of what I do on this particular front is instinct, simply because every single story is different. However, there are some commonalities within the beats of a story, which has given rise to models like the traditional 3-act structure.

It's time to start dissecting the mechanics of some of these models, just so you, as a writer, can see why editors use them so often within our work.

Writing Accent into Fictional Writing

You have a character that comes from a particular region of the world. The people from this region tend to speak in a particular fashion. It's distinctive, and the moment anyone hears it, they instantly get a sense of the type of environment that the character came from.

It's only natural to want to put that into our writing. We want to immerse our readers into the world. We want them to experience it. Being able to imagine a character's accent is only part of that experience.

However, building accent into the written form is not a simple matter of slapping a few letters onto the page. Like everything else we do in writing, it takes careful thought and consideration.

Writing accent into your story could add the perfect color to your fictional world, but it could also turn into a reader's nightmare.

Why the Black Wolf?

Novel Word Counts by the Genre

We’re coming up to competition season. As such, there seems to be an increase in the number of questions and discussions online about the accepted word count range for novels.

In a previous post, I discussed the limitations that word counts can have on short stories. In a recent post, I briefly outlined what the differences were between a short story, novella and a novel. Today, we’re going to compile into one list what the current accepted ranges are for debut writers heading down traditional publication roads.

The Importance of Press Kits—Even for the Debut Writer

Some years ago, I encountered a post that spoke about the importance of having a press kit on your website, even if you were a debut writer. By a press kit, they meant having downloadable pictures and copies of your bio of various formats, and of course, information about your new book. The press kit could be used by anyone for almost any purpose, but it was a form of advertising.

I have no idea on what blog I saw that post on all those years ago, but I remember getting my A into G and putting together a press kit page on my personal website, complete with information about the book that was being released at the time. Since then, I have updated the page to focus on more recent publications, and I keep updating it.

However, in the last week, I have discovered how important having the press kit page really is.Read More→

The Long or the Short of a Story

The length of a story has more impact on the nature of a story than people realize. In a previous post, I wrote about how there is a minimum number of words necessary to do a story justice. This is particularly the case when working in the short story form. However, what many writers don’t realize is that the length of the story will help to define the expectations of a reader when it comes to world building, character development and pacing. There will also be a literary expectation imposed by word counts.

With the publishing industry, you have six broad categories for story length: flash fiction, short stories, novelette, novella, short novel and long novel.

It’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty and explain the difference between these different categories and the reader expectations involved.

Is your profile a turnoff?

Publishing has always been a business, and writers are expected to build brands, which consists not only of the books they write, but also of their social media and online presence. Our non-writing activities have always been a part of this whole marketing thing, and how we handle that message is just part of the game. However, the internet has added a "now" component to the marketing equation that wasn't there before, and disaster is waiting to happen.

Anyone who is a regular reader of this blog (and my personal blog) will know that I'm a big fan of protecting oneself on the internet, protecting one's physical and cyber security, as well as one's reputation. But there could be aspects with what you are doing that could be a massive turnoff... and you don't even know it.

I'm talking about the overall message behind what it is that you're posting. I'm talking about your profile as a whole: the bio, the photos, and the individual messages. I'm talking about the public face that you present to the world.

And it all boils down to two things: politics and religion. They are both incredibly sensitive topics, but they also have their fingers wrapped around almost everything that we do.

Let me explain further.

Trick from the Editor’s Hat: The Top-and-Tail Edit

It doesn't matter how you look at it, editing is a BIG job. Any little tricks to help make things flow are always handy to have.

Here is just one of the many tricks that I employ when editing both my own and clients' writing, giving me a way to examine story flow.

The Top-and-Tail Edit

The idea behind a top-and-tail edit is that you examine the transitions between chapter and sections, looking at the last paragraph(s) of one chapter and reading the first paragraph(s) of the next. Everything in the middle is ignored. This is only looking at the transitions.

This particular idea is highly effective with the development of the cliff-hanger endings.

Breaking the Fourth Wall: A Literary Term Defined